About

In 2000, after nearly 20 years working in international marketing, I had the chance to change my life—by changing my career. I went back to things I love most: hunting and shooting. I’ve been a firearms trainer by both vocation and occupation for 17 years now.

I’d started shooting much earlier, only child of a hunting-fishing dad (who eventually started an outfitting service). I got my first guide’s license at 17, and thought I’d take over my dad’s outfitting business someday.

Saner minds prevailed and I went to college, but continued to shoot and hunt whenever I could. Happily, my school had a shooting program, and I became the first female captain of the Yale University Skeet and Trap team. (Yes, THAT Yale. And there is still a shotgun team there!) Like many girls in college, I got the campus cop lectures on safety and security, and I’d actually taken my first defensive handgun course at what today is the Gunsite Academy. I thought I was pretty squared away (with my purse-mace!). But then I got held-up by two gunmen, and that really brought home the many issues surrounding personal defense, including the tools that were available to me for self-reliance and self-protection, and how I used them.

After graduating, to my parents’ relief, instead of going hunting, I got a “real” job. I even got an MBA! But deep down, I still loved shooting and hunting. Finally, by 2000, I worked my way up and out to the point that I could make the big change without any regrets. I resurrected the company I’d started in college (“On the Wild Side”) and started teaching and guiding again, now full-time… and I haven’t looked back.

For me, the opportunity to show people how integral firearms and the shooting of them can—and should—be in our lives is a huge motivator. My own life has been shaped, enhanced and maybe even saved, because I can own and shoot guns. I want to open that world to others.

I work with people of all ages, skill levels, and disciplines. It’s incredibly gratifying to take people who may not have even considered firearms before, and bring them to the point of wanting to carry them. But it’s equally rewarding to work with masters who are extremely skilled and experienced, and help them discover new strengths, or perhaps work through old problems—and all the while, learning from each and every person I work with.